Orphan Otters Rescued

One of my best friends and his dad rescued these two baby otters after their mother had been run over by a car.

A Sudden Call
On Wednesday afternoon, Merijn got a message from his dad. If he could come and help him for a moment. They had to rescue two baby otters.

OrphanedEarlier that day, a female otter was found dead near the small town of Sonnega, in the north of the Netherlands. From her looks, it was easy to tell she had suckling pups. So soon after she had been found, a message got out to Harry and Auke (who is Merijns father, and also owns nature education centre “de Rietnymf”), if they could please go and look for the orphaned young. Auke in turn asked Merijn if he could help them out.

Scared and HiddenLuckily, the young were soon found. Scared and lonely without their mum, they had sought shelter in a pipe in the side of a ditch.

While finding them was one thing, getting the otters out to move them to safety proved to be quite something else! Originally, the plan was to put a fish trap at one end of the pipe, while pushing another one through the other end to scare them into the first. Unfortunately, that didn’t work as planned, and capturing the two otters took quite a while. After nearly four hours, one of the otters emerged from the pipe, walking straight into the fish trap. Then the other wasn’t far behind and the two baby otters could be brought to safety.

Hope for a FutureNow the two small orphans are in the expert care of bird sanctuary “de Fugelhelling” in Ureterp. The otters seem strong and healthy, but only time will tell if they can really make it through. Let’s hope so!